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There are a few phrases in the English language that I assumed made everyone’s ears burn and turn red when they heard them. I don’t know who first told me to be wary of these simple words, but I do not doubt the warning. There is something very chilling in justifying criminality and tyranny with these short statements:

“The ends justify the means.” and “For the greater good.”

CBS reports that Chief Daniel Oates shamelessly declared “The ends justify the means” because a suspect was caught after the Aurora Police Department shut down an intersection in search of a bank robber. At the intersection, the police stopped 19 cars, and detained all 40 innocent people who had been riding in the vehicles, because the officers had some undisclosed technology providing information that promised “virtual certainty” that the bank robber was among the 40 innocent Americans being harassed. The cops had the suspect’s name but no picture, description, or any idea what car the robber would be in. This somehow permitted an ordinary crime, once again, to be the reason for the annulment of the fourth amendment, and therefore the disrespect and arrogant dismissal of the rule of law and justice. frederickleatherman.wordpress.com had this to say:

“A reasonable suspicion is more than a mere hunch. It requires articulable facts and circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to suspect that aparticularindividual had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime.

Apparently, Officer Fania was looking for a particular weapon, which he believed was concealed in one of the vehicles at the intersection, but he did not have a description of the robber or the vehicle the robber was driving or in which he was riding. Therefore, every vehicle the police stopped was an unlawful stop, including the stop of the vehicle that contained the person they subsequently arrested.”